String Processing Languages

Abstract:

In most traditional programming languages, character strings are arrays
of characters, and string processing is programmed with low-level array
operations, such as indexing. In high-level string-processing
languages, strings are treated at a higher conceptual level. Strings
are first-class values in these languages, and most offer a rich set of
operations that manipulate strings as atomic values. Examples include
concatenation, substring identification, transformation, and pattern
matching. This report surveys some of the past and present
string-processing and their facilities that deal with strings.
Included are brief descriptions of Comit, the SNOBOL languages, and
Icon. This report will appear in the third edition of the Encyclopedia
of Computer Science and Engineering, to be published by Van Nostrand
Reinhold.

This technical report has been published as

"String Processing Languages." Ralph E. Griswold and David
R. Hanson, Encyclopedia of
Computer Science, editor A. Ralston, 3rd edition, Van Nostrand
Reinhold, NY, 1992.